Cornwall’s food has always been built on what the county could provide. The tin mining families who worked the engine houses around Camborne, Redruth and St Just kept small plots, a pig or two, and a few chickens, and they cooked with what was cheap and plentiful: potatoes, onions, brassicas, a little bacon, and cheese made from the milk of a neighbour’s cows. That thrift is still the best way to cook here. Pair a good wedge of Cornish cheese with whatever the market has that morning and you have supper sorted in under an hour.

Start with the Cheese

Cornwall makes a wider range of cheese than most visitors expect, and each style does a different job in the kitchen. Buy from a market stall or farm shop where you can taste before you commit, and always let the cheese sit at room temperature for half an hour before eating or cooking — the flavour opens up enormously.

• Cornish blue — creamy, peppery and rich. Best crumbled cold over salads, or melted into a sauce for pasta and baked potatoes.
• Nettle-wrapped semi-hard — a springy, buttery cheese with a faintly grassy edge from the leaves. Excellent sliced into scones, grated into tarts, or eaten with apple.
• Soft brie-style — ripe and oozing at the edges. Serve at room temperature with new potatoes and pickled shallots, or bake whole in a small dish with garlic and thyme.
• Mature crumbly cheddar-style — sharp, salty and dependable. The workhorse for rarebit, pastry and gratins.

The Rest of the Cornish Larder

A recipe is only as good as what goes with it, and this corner of the country supplies beautifully. Keep these on hand and you will rarely need to shop beyond the weekly market.

• New potatoes, harvested early and waxy — they hold their shape in salads and tarts.
• Clotted cream, for finishing scones and folding into a cheese and apple pudding.
• Cornish crab or mackerel, both landed daily and both wonderful against a sharp blue cheese dressing.
• Cider and ale, from small presses and breweries, for rarebit, casseroles and marinades.
• Watercress and sea herbs, including samphire in summer, for pepper and salt without effort.
• Honey and rapeseed oil, the backbone of a good salad dressing.

A Potato, Leek and Cheese Tart

This is the dish I make most often for a crowd, and it echoes the mining-house habit of stretching a little cheese a long way. It serves six with salad.

• 320g shortcrust pastry
• 500g waxy potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
• 2 leeks, sliced and washed well
• 150g mature crumbly cheese, grated
• 2 eggs, 150ml double cream, 1 tsp mustard, grating of nutmeg

Heat the oven to 190°C. Line a 23cm tart tin with the pastry, prick the base and chill for fifteen minutes, then blind bake for twenty minutes and remove the weights. Meanwhile, simmer the potato slices in salted water for six minutes until just tender, and soften the leeks in a knob of butter for eight minutes without browning. Layer the potatoes and leeks in the pastry case and scatter over two-thirds of the cheese. Whisk the eggs, cream, mustard and nutmeg, season well, and pour over. Finish with the remaining cheese and bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes until set and golden. Rest for ten minutes before slicing — hot cream straight from the oven will run.

A Hearty Blue Cheese and Apple Salad

This is a proper plate of food rather than a side dish, and it makes the most of a sharp blue and crisp autumn apples. Serves four.

• 600g new potatoes, boiled and halved
• 2 crisp apples, cored and thinly sliced
• 100g Cornish blue, crumbled
• 60g walnuts, toasted and roughly broken
• 2 handfuls of watercress or mixed leaves
• 3 tbsp rapeseed oil, 1 tbsp cider vinegar, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp mustard

Whisk the dressing ingredients with a good pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Toss the warm potatoes in half the dressing and leave to cool for ten minutes so they drink it up. Layer the leaves, potatoes, apple and cheese on a wide platter, scatter the walnuts over, and spoon on the rest of the dressing. Eat while the potatoes are still faintly warm.

Two Quick Suppers: Rarebit and Scones

For a fast evening, a proper rarebit beats almost anything. Melt 50g butter with 200g grated mature cheese, 2 tbsp ale, 1 tsp mustard, a dash of Worcestershire sauce and plenty of pepper. Off the heat, beat in two egg yolks, then spoon the mixture over thick slices of toast and grill until bubbling and blistered. Add a poached egg on top if you are hungry.

Cheese scones are the other standby. Rub 60g cold butter into 250g self-raising flour with 1 tsp mustard powder and a pinch of salt, then stir in 100g crumbled nettle-wrapped cheese and a handful of chopped chives. Bring together with about 150ml buttermilk, roll to 3cm thick, cut into rounds and bake at 200°C for twelve to fifteen minutes. They freeze well and revive in a low oven.

Market Day Habits

Shop on the day you plan to cook where you can, and talk to the people behind the stall — they will tell you which cheese is ready this week and which needs a few more days. Wrap cheese in greaseproof paper rather than cling film so it can breathe, and keep it in the salad drawer. Buy potatoes and greens in small amounts twice a week rather than once, and use the last of a wedge in a tart or rarebit rather than letting it dry out. That is the whole tradition in practice: good ingredients, cooked simply, and nothing wasted.